The host Florida Panthers and the visiting Anaheim Ducks — two franchises that entered the NHL together in 1993 — will meet on Wednesday night at the BB&T Center.Anaheim has been much more successful as a franchise Authentic Artturi Lehkonen Jersey , winning the Stanley Cup in 2007 as well as taking six division crowns and two conference championships.The Ducks have been especially good this decade, qualifying for the playoffs six straight years, winning the Pacific Division five of the past six seasons and topping 100 points in each of the five years.Article continues below ...However, the Ducks were swept out of the first round of the playoffs by the San Jose Sharks last season. This season, the Ducks endured a seven-game losing streak, including five defeats in regulation.They are last in the NHL in scoring, and Ducks coach Randy Carlyle has asked his team to play shut-down defense.“With the personnel we have in place, we have to win 2-1 or 1-0,” he told The Orange County Register. “It’s as simple as that — and any more offense is a bonus.”The Ducks (11-10-5) followed that plan on Tuesday night, defeating the Tampa Bay Lightning 3-1.Meanwhile, the Panthers have never won the Stanley Cup. They won a conference championship in 1996 — the greatest season in club history even though they came up short in the Stanley Cup Finals — and they earned division titles in 2012 and 2016.Last season, the Panthers started slowly and then got hot starting on Jan. 30, finishing one point short of a playoff berth.This season Carey Price Jersey , the Panthers are off to another slow start at 9-9-4. They started a crucial eight-game homestand on Saturday against the Chicago Blackhawks, and they gave up a tying goal with 1.8 seconds left in regulation. The Blackhawks then won in overtime.On Monday, the Panthers were facing near-certain defeat, losing 3-2 to the New Jersey Devils in the final two minutes.However, Florida’s Jonathan Huberdeau scored with 1:29 left in regulation to tie the score 3-3, and Mike Hoffman scored in overtime to exorcise the demons from the Chicago game.“With the adversity we faced against Chicago, it effects your mind and mindset,” Panthers coach Bob Boughner admitted. “Thinking we should’ve won (against the Blackhawks) and we didn’t was tough.”Huberdeau said the Devils win should give the Panthers a new outlook.“It feels good for our confidence,” he said. “The (Chicago) game hurt us at the end, and we just needed the two points. We need to keep going.”Florida’s main problem is on defense as they entered the week ranked next-to-last in the league in goals allowed. The Panthers are killing just 75 percent of their power plays — only three teams are worse — and they are without their top goalie, Roberto Luongo, who has missed two straight games due to a lower-body injury.In addition, center Vincent Trocheck Jeff Petry Jersey Kids , who was an All-Star center in 2017 and scored 54 goals the past two years, is out with a fractured ankle.Backup goalie James Reimer, who got Florida’s win on Monday, will likely be in the nets, and the Panthers offense is led by five players who all have between 20 and 23 points: Hoffman, Evgenii Dadonov, Huberdeau, captain Aleksander Barkov and power-play quarterback Keith Yandle.Hoffman leads the team with 12 goals.Meanwhile, the Ducks are without their top two defensemen — Cam Fowler (broken jaw) and Hampus Lindholm (lower body).Offensively, no Ducks player has more than six goals, and players who used to be snipers such as Corey Perry (knee) and Patrick Eaves (back) are on injured reserve and past their primes.Perry, 33, has gone from 33 goals to 19 to 17 in the past three years Jonathan Drouin Jersey , and he will likely miss this entire season.Eaves, 34, scored 32 goals in 2016-2017 but has played just five games since. While the Toronto Maple Leafs and William Nylander squabble over a new contract, it's becoming clear there are plenty of reasons to consider trading a player that was at one time considered a key piece of the team's future.The team faces two problems. First,聽Nylander is an unsigned restricted free agent, who hasn鈥檛 yet come to terms on a contract extension with the team. With every day he sits out, he's falling further and further聽behind. Second, if Nylander does sign, or the Leafs give him a penny more than he's worth, as early as next year, the Leafs might face a serious salary cap issue.advertisingThanks to the delay, both the media and anxious Maple Leaf fans have started to ask: 鈥淪hould the Maple Leafs trade William Nylander?鈥滾eafs Don't Need Nylander via thesportsterNylander is talented but the Leafs might not "need" him. Few teams could allow a player who produces like Nylander has to sit, but the Leafs are so stacked offensively http://www.officialcanadiensprostore.com/authentic-adidas-karl-alzner-jersey , the聽organization could聽let him stew. Namely, adding John Tavares in an area where the Maple Leafs were already strong only made Nylander expendable.At some point, it鈥檚 Nylander and not the Leafs who have to budge in this negotiation. Should the young forward want to play and join a group that is favored to do well, he鈥檚 got to lower his demands. As this holdout lingers, if Nylander doesn't realize he's not going to win this stalemate, he might be on the move, he should be on the move and the GM is wise enough to make future plans that don't include him.advertisingTrading Nylander Is About Leaf's Long-Term Future THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris YoungIt is up to Maple Leafs' GM Kyle Dubas to mandate team-building and consider the long-term salary cap implications for the organization.聽In any other situation, overpaying Nylander by $500K to $1 million per season would be acceptable. Not this summer.聽 Nylander is seeking a multi-year deal (rumored by some to be as high as $8 million per year), and Dubas knows if he caves to the pressure, he has Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner, among others, who become free agents next summer and will devastate his salary cap with their聽respective asks.advertisingThe team cannot afford to overpay the first big free agent to come up for an extension and long-term if Nylander doesn't come in at a number that works for the franchise, the team is better to move him for help in another area. This is a time that Dubas has to be especially careful as to the precedent he sets.The Time Is Now via THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris YoungThere is something to be said for the small window that exists for teams to win a Stanley Cup. According to the opinion of many insiders and oddsmakers Jonathan Bernier Jersey Womens , Toronto is in that window. That means two things: the team can't let Nylander miss the season without getting something in return and if the Leafs don't improve their blueline, they may squander an opportunity while it exists.advertisingThe Maple Leafs might be stacked on offense and employ the most dangerous聽group of centers and forwards in the NHL, but their defense is still suspect at best. Nylander certainly offers a tradeable asset that could help improve the blue line in a way that makes the Leafs a more well-rounded team. At the very least, Dubas should be exploring this.The Leafs may lose any one-for-one trade if they choose to move Nylander but in the end, it might be what's best for the franchise. They get a chance to move a player who may not understand he's not going to win this financial standoff, the team can improve their blueline (an area of need) and the GM can send a swift message that if you're a part of this group, you'd better be thinking team and not self or you won't stick around.advertising